ALBANY, N.Y. -- University at Albany will have a new face on campus, come this January. Dr. Robert Jones has been named the school's 19th president.

Jones hails from the University of Minnesota system, where he served as senior vice president for the last eight years. In that role, he was responsible for overseeing a range of support programs and initiatives for academic programs at the University. Prior to that, Dr. Jones served more than 15 years in key administrative leadership positions at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities.

Dr. Jones is a Georgia native and he's a fellow of both the American Society of Agronomy and the Crop Science Society of America.

His first day on the job is January 2, 2013.

Dr. Jones succeeds George Philip. Philip served as interim president at UAlbany from 2007 to 2009 and as president since then.